Offline vs Online Shopping

In this day and age, technology surrounds us everywhere and it's become apparent that we have this need to stay connected. The internet is such a thing which provides with this opportunity. Today, we're more concerned with making everything as efficient and as easy as possible above all else. Online shopping has provided us with an easy shopping experience at the click of a button and whilst it is much easier than the traditional shopping experience, how does it compare?


Time

With online shopping, if you really know what you're searching for, you'll be able to find a product within a few minutes of searching online. I prefer online shops to real-world stores in this instance simply because I'm able to browse my category, brand, size, colour, price and so forth. The many features of a web shop allow you to narrow your search from over 1000+ items to merely 10-20 or even less. This is of course time-saving for any consumer who may spend hours wandering around a shopping centre or mall not knowing which shops to target.

Many online shops also stock new collections much faster than stores do. When I visit the International designers section of Bourke St Myer, I always find pieces of their "new" Givenchy collection that are already on sale online for a much cheaper price.


Money

For the world of high fashion it's much easier and better to shop online than in stores when you don't live in a country that doesn't have over 10 Chanel boutiques in one city. The bonus is that you also don't have to pay tax on items which are under $1000 worth in value (if they aren't, you'll have to pay a duty of 30% of the items worth which honestly would suck). There is a downside though, many shops charge ridiculous amounts for shipping and some shops don't even ship to countries such as Australia.

The most I've ever paid for shipping was £36 pounds when I recently purchased a book from Collette.fr (this converts to roughly $55 AUD if you were wondering)* and the least I've ever paid is nothing (free shipping is an amazing thing and so rare to come by online).

As for the shops who don't ship to Australia, there is an alternative. MyUS is a business that forwards packages from the US. How it works is this: you pay them a membership fee of $10 or more and they give you an address in the US which you can use when you ship online and then they forward it to you but here's the catch you have to pay the shipping of both. So I went onto their website to do some research of roughly how much it would cost you to forward a package from the US to Australia. If I shipped a package from the US to Australia which only weighed 200 grams and the dimensions of the package were 10x10x10cm it would've cost me roughly $46 which is on top of the $10 membership fee and shipping that you probably would've had to pay to ship the package to your US address. Let's keep in mind that this is a package that is only weighing 200 grams.

Although books are one of things that are so much cheaper if you order them online, probably about 60% of the price that you would pay in stores because there is no tax on them and some websites such as thebookdepository have absolutely free shipping although it's annoying that they don't ship all your items together but separately.


Service

Although you may not get the traditional shopping experience online as you do in store. I honestly believe that the service you receive as a consumer online is much better than in store. In stores the sales assistants are more than often bitchy and will only talk to you if you're dressed nicely, also I've had to wait over 10 minutes in a Chanel boutique and Prada store for someone to help me, which is honestly quite disappointing.

The only thing I'm not a fan of in terms of online shopping is the shipping time. Sometimes it takes weeks for a package to arrive and others a few days. It's just not the same as being able to walk into a mall and pick something up instantly. The anticipation of waiting for something to arrive while exciting is just plain annoying and although you can track your packages' whereabouts online, you're never sure (sometimes it takes up to 24 hours for those apps to update).

The service online is in my opinion much better than the service which you might receive in stores. Most often stores will be more than happy to help you find a shoe size or garment size or offer you advice on what you should purchase if you just send an email to their customer service.

Some websites such as Net-a-Porter offer a services which are somewhat similar to in store personal shopping experiences. They offer the service of fashion advisors which you are able to contact by email or over the phone.

The Frederic Malle website also offers a similar experience where you complete a survey and a Frederic Malle advisor then emails you directly with a few scents that they feel you would like. They then ask if you would like for 3 samples of the perfumes recommended for you to be sent out, although you do have to pay for the postage, I really do think it's worth it if you do not have a Frederic Malle stockists near where you live. For those of you living in Australia, some Mecca's stock the range.

One part of the online shopping experience which may scare people is the returns policy. Before I start browsing through any store I usually check the following criteria:

1. Whether or not they ship to Australia
2. How much the shipping is
3. Their returns policy

and most important of all, read the fine print! Some websites e.g. Opening Ceremony have a very strict returns policy, they don't offer returns or even exchanges for phone orders, special orders, pre-orders or international orders. 

Product

In store you're able to physically see, touch, feel and even smell (in the case of perfume) the product which you'll be purchasing. Obviously the online retail industry cannot offer the same experience although some companies have found a way around this.

Oscar Wylee is a newly founded eyewear company which offers home trials for their glasses frames and sunglasses. How it works is this, you are able to order five pairs of frames which are then sent out to you and you'll have 5 days to try them and choose which pair you are most happy with. After that, you send the trial frames back and then order the pair which you like best. The best thing about this is that the home trial is completely free of charge.

Oscar Wylee is currently the only company I'm aware of that is currently offering this service and it is this service which will make their company extremely successful in the future. They have found a new and innovative way to bridge the gap between convenience of online shopping and the traditional shopping experience.

One of the most important things about online shopping is that you need to know you product. I think that it's true that a lot of people often go into stores to decide on what they want to buy and then come home and buy it online. However, if you do not know what you're buying into and the description of the product is extremely vague and unspecific, you run the risk that you'll be paying for nothing. And in this way offline shopping triumphs hugely because you are able to physically see the product in person.

While the phenomenon of online shopping is still relatively new to most people, it's one that is here to stay and may even ultimately eradicate the offline shopping industry.


*In my defence it was Pierre Debusschere's new book and he's one of my favourite photographers alongside Viviane Sassen so it was totally worth it.